The
Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana
University-Purdue University Indianapolis welcomes individual paper proposals
on the topic of the Bible in American Life. Focusing on how Americans past and
present have used the Bible in their daily lives, the conference (6-9 August
2014 in Indianapolis) will be interdisciplinary in nature, with scholars from
various perspectives offering analyses from historical, cultural, sociological,
and theological approaches, among others.

Thanks
to a generous grant from Lilly Endowment, the Center for the Study of Religion
and American Culture will cover travel, lodging, and food expenses related to
the conference. Additionally, authors will receive a $1000 stipend for
participation in the project. More details below the fold.

The
culmination of a three-year study, the conference will have as its touchstone The Bible in American Life Report, which
will be released in February 2014. This report, the result of survey questions
on both the General Social Survey and the National Congregations Study III,
offers sociological data about the role of the Bible in the daily lives of
Americans. Conference papers need not interact with the report directly, but we
encourage proposals that consider some of the report’s findings in their larger
historical, cultural, sociological, or theological contexts.

The
Bible in American Life Project seeks to provide the first large-scale
investigation of the Bible in American life. It is driven by the recognition
that though the Bible has been central to Christian practice throughout
American history, many important questions remain unanswered in scholarship,
including how people have read the Bible for themselves outside of worship, how
denominational and parachurch organizations have influenced interpretation and
application, and how clergy and congregations have influenced individual
understandings of scripture. These questions are even more pressing today as
denominations are losing much of their traditional authority, technology is
changing people’s reading and cognitive habits, and subjective experience is
continuing to eclipse textual authority as the mark of true religion.

We
welcome proposals for papers (20-25 minutes) that focus on some aspect of
Americans’ reading and use of scripture outside formal worship services. Papers
that complement one another and expand on the historical and cultural
understandings of the report will be published in a collected volume. Paper
proposals must include a general overview of the argument and evidence to be presented
in no more than three pages and a short CV (3 pages). Deadline for receiving
proposals is March 14, 2014. Proposals should be sent electronically to raac@iupui.edu; please use “Bible in America”
as the subject heading.